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Meaning, I have one guy who is doing the high level stuff finally. Just had my Paladin complete the entire quest line for Mount Hyjal. I dinged 80 after doing some remaining quests in Storm Peaks in Northrend then worked on leveling up my blacksmithing skill so that I could begin making rudimentary use once I started questing in the newer zones. Having leveled two other characters to 80 previously, I was a little sick of Northrend and glad to try some of the newer zones. I managed to get enough reputation in Northrend to purchase a few blue items, hoping that the gear would be enough for me take on the mobs in Mount Hyjal. I have to say, it was a little shocking at first.

The very first area you start in hits you over your head immediately with numerous mobs and fast respawn rates. I'm guessing Blizzard did this in anticipation of all the players that were waiting to level their toons again from 80. Being primarily a Protection Paladin, my guy doesn't do nearly as much damage as when he goes Retribution. But more on that in a moment. Most mobs out here have around 30k health starting. Without raiding and just skimming pre-Heroics gear, my Paladin was struggling a bit at first. You do get some help as NPCs help battle with you. However, trying to down these mobs with my weak weapon turned out to be a pain until I managed to acquire some new items.

I tried Retribution a bit and just felt that my guy was barely surviving without the raiding gear from ICC. So for the most part I stayed Protection, even though I was giving up more DPS. Still, I could survive for longer periods and still manage to pull off enough DPS until I managed to secure better gear. By the end of the quest chain, you pretty much are geared as if you had done Heroic 25 man ICC or Ruby Sanctum raids. My guy ended up with five blue items and only had one remaining trinket to be replaced. Also, he left at level 82 and is now supposed to visit the Maelstrom to speak with Thrall, probably in anticipation of venturing into Deepholm.

That said, I decided to take a small break in moving forward into the Cataclysm content and test his improvements. So naturally, I sped over to Scarlet Monestary and hit Cathedral. What I found is that at level 82 with the gear you've obtained from the quest rewards, you won't be touched. At least, as a Protection Paladin. I did Cathedral in about 3 pulls. Once I cleared the courtyard and opened the door, I had the entire monestary on my guy. However, he hardly was scratched. I might try for 2 pulls next time or even 1 pull. But the idea is to test out the optimal way for eventually running people through the monestary with my Paladin.

Now, another thing I want to try is to go back into Outlands and revisit some instances. I used to run people through Ramparts, the Blood Furnace and the 3-4 near Shattrath using a fairly well geared BM hunter. The question is how well will my Paladin perform at this point. What size of a mob can he take? Part of the idea is to make money by doing this. The faster I can clear these instances, the more gold I can make on the server. I'd like to upgrade my flying to Master level next, which I just need another 1250. In the past when I would run Mana-Tombs, I easily could make over 100 gold per run (maybe more) just on all the drops and loots. Since there's a vendor nearby, I could theoretically farm this zone 12 times in a row and make that money for the upgrade.

Also, I'd love to try soloing some Northrend instances. I might try those at level 85 so that I'll have a potential 5-15 level advantage over them. Not every instance might be soloable, but a few spots like Uthgarde Keep, The Nexus, The Violet Hold to name a few look like possible candidates for soloing.

I might take a little break on my Paladin and try leveling my druid and/or my shaman. I'm finding a great need for my druid to level up her Inscription capability and a larger need in having a tailor. So far, there aren't any tailors in my guild and I've got a huge amount of spare materials. More importantly, I'm in dire need to upgrade my Paladin's bags from Netherweave, since higher level bags on the Auction House on my server sell for ridiculous amounts. Although I probably won't be able to get a tailor up to Illustrion GM anytime soon, just having someone capable of converting my spare mats is an absolute necessity at this point.

Going back to leveling my druid though, I decided to diverge her from Kalimdor to the Eastern Kingdoms for leveling. I want to try the areas I haven't leveled in thus far. Right now, she's in Hillsbrad and I'm finding most quests to be fun. Eventually, in going through these zones, I'm going to compile a list of areas that demonstrate the best leveling experience. For instance, I found that The Barrens, Badlands and Silithus proved to be some of the worst areas to level. However, I do like Stonetalon Mountains, Western/Eastern Plaguelands and the Blasted Lands.

One thing that I DO NOT like is Outlands. I guess with all the changes the game has made over the years, Outlands feels the most dated, which is reasonable since it's one of the remaining artifacts left from the older WoW. The main problem I felt was that the questing aspect of the game had improved dramatically. So when you come to Outlands, it feels like an unorganized chore. Lots of group quests, you have that ever present annoying Fel Reaver in Hellfire Peninsula and you're struggling a bit, especially if you're a fresh level 58. The other thing is that I've done Outlands about 4 times now so it's boring. When my Paladin hit 68, I immediately took him to the Borean Tundra just to get out of Outlands. On a side note, I do recommend hitting 60 prior to entering Outlands so you can pick up flying immediately. When I switched servers and was leveling my hunter, I put her in Outlands just after finishing up the Blasted Lands at level 58. Big Mistake. Not having flying meant a lot of unnecessary pain. Also, some mobs show up as orange. Add the Fel Reaver to the equation and a ton of boring running around on a grounded mount, you're really better off finding a zone to pick up the spare two levels. You can also attempt instance grinding to get the extra levels, but if you're a DPS class, then it might take a while.

Right now, I'm looking forward to checking out Uldum, Deepholm and the Twilight Highlands. Maybe in the next week or so, my Paladin will hit 85. But it should be fun gearing him up even more and taking on older stuff just to see how much further he has progressed.